The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-09-12
CHRISTIAN HOSPITALITY.
TALMAGE SPEAKS OF ITS TRIALS
AND REWARDS,


Possible Alleviations on Their Side
of the Scale-A Positive Triumph to
be Able to Entertain the Objection
able Visitor Affably.
THE HAMpToNs, Sept 1.-THE Rev. DR..
T. Dewitt Talmage's text to-day was from
Romans, xii, 5-13: ''Given to hospitality"
and his discourse as follows:
There is danger that the multiplication of
large and commodious hotels in our towns,
and cities, and villages, win utterly exter
inmate that grace which Abraham exhib-
tied when he entertained the angels, and
which lot showed when he watched
for guests at the gate of the city, and
which Christ recognized as positive requi
site for entering heaven, when he declared
81 was stranger and ye took me in."
l propose TO speak this morning of the
trials and rewards of Christian hospitality.
The first trial often comes in the whim and
eccentricity of the guest himself. There are
a great many excellent people who have
protuberances of disposition, and sharp
edges of temperament, and unpliability of
character, which make them positive
nuisance in any house where they stay. On
short acquaintance they will begin to com
mand the household affairs, order the EN-
ployes to unusual service, keep unseasona-
BILE hours, use narcotics in places offensive
to sensitive nostrils, put their feet at unusual
elevations, drop the ashes of their Havana
on costly tapestry, open bureaus they ought
never to touch, and pry into things they
ought never to see, and become inn
pervious to rousing bells, and have
all the peculiarities of the gor-
mandizer or the dyspeptic, and make
excavations from poor dentistry with
unusual implements, and in thousand ways
affiict the household which proposes to tase
care of them. Added to all, they stay too
long. They have no idea when their well
come is worn out, and they would be mn
moved even by the blessing which my friend
Gerrit Smith, the philanthropist, asked one
morning at his breakfast table, on the day
when he hoped that the long-protracted
guests would depart, saying: 80 Lord, bless
this provision, and our friends who leave us
to-dayn But, my friends, there are allevia-
tiOns to be put on their side of the scale.
Perhaps they have not had the same re-
filming influences about them in early life
that you have had. Perhaps they
have inherited eccentricities that
they cannot help Perhaps it is
your duty, by example, to oshow them a bet
ter way. Perhaps they are sent to be a
trial for the development of your patience.
Perhaps they were to be intended as an il
lustration of the opposite of what you are
trying to inculcuate in the minds of your
children. Perhaps it is to make your home
the brighter when they are gone. When
our guests are CHEEKY, and fascinating, and
elegant it is very easy to entertain them I;
but when we find in eur guests that which
is antagonistic to our taste and sentiment it
is a positive triumph when we can obey
the words of my text, and be ''given to
hospitality"
Another trial in the using of this grace is
in the toll and expense of exercising it. In
the well-regulated household things go
smoothly, but now you have introduced a
foreign element into the machinery, and
though you may stoutly declare that they
must take things as they find them, the
Martha will break in. The ungovernable
stove The ruined dessert. The joint that
proves to be unmasticable. The delayed
marketing, The perplexities of caterer.
The difficulty of doing proper work, and yet
always being presentable Though you may
say there shall be no care or anxiety, there
will be care and there will be anxiety. In
1894 the captain general provided a very
grand entertainment; and among other
things, he had fountain in his garden--a
fountain of strong drink In it were four
hogsheads of brandy, eight hogsheads of
water, twenty-five thousand lemons, thir-
teen hundredweight Of Lisbon sugar, five
pounds of grated nutmeg, three hun
dred toasted biscuits, and a boat built
ON purpose was placed in the fountain, and
a boy rowed around it, and filled the cups of
the people who came there to be supplied
Well, you say, that was luxurious enter
tainment, and, of course, the man had no
anxiety; but have TO tell you, that though
you had, or propose an entertainment like
that Won haya auxiatU In TINT fhfnar
comes the Divine reward. We were born
to serve; and when we serve others, we
serve God. The flush on that woman's
cheek, as she bends over the hot stove, is as
sacred in Gods sight as the flush on the
cheek of one who, on hot day, breaches
the Gospel We may serve God with plate,
and cutlery, and broom, as certainly as we
can serve Him with psalmbook and
liturgy. Margaret, Queen of Norway
royal cup of ten lips, on which
was recorded the names of the guests who
had drunk from this cup. And every
Christian woman has a royal cup, on which
are written all the names of those who have
ever been entertained by her in Christian
style-names not cut by human ingenuity,
but written by the hand Of Divine Jesus.
But, my friends, you are not to toll un-
necessarily Though the fare be plain,
ness OF appointments will be good enough
for anybody that ever comes to your house
John Howard was invited To the
mouse of q nobleman. He said: II
WIN come on one condition, and that is
that you have nothing but potatoes on the
table" The requisit:on was complied with
Cyrus, King of Persia, under the same cir
cumstances, prescribed that on the table
there must be nothing but bread OF course,
these were extremes, but they are illustra-
tions of the fact that more depends up
on the banquetters than upon the banquet.
l want to lift this idea Of Christian enter
tainment out Of positive bondage into a
glorious inducement. Every effort you
put forth, and every dollar you give to the
entertainment Of friend or foe, you give di-
rectly TO Christ. Suppose il were announced
that the Lord Jesus Christ would come
to this place this week, what wo-
man in this house would not
he glad to wash for Him, or spread for Him
a bed, or bake bread for Him. There was
one Of old who washed for Him, drawing the
water from the well Of her own tears. He
is coming He will be here tomorrow
"Inasmuch as ye have done it TO one of the
least of these, my brethren, ye have done it
to Me- In picture galleries we have often
seen representations of Walter Scott and
his friends, or Washington Irving with his
associates; but all those engravings will
fade out, while through everlasting ages,
hanging luminous and conspicuous, win be
the picture Of you and your Christian
guests
You see we have passed out from tho
trials into the rewards of Christian hoeni-